A North Carolina county and a local sheriff’s office have agreed to pay $3 million settlement to the family of a Black man who died in the county jail. The settlement comes almost two months after a grand jury didn’t indict corrections officers for John Neville’s death in December 2019 and pinned charges on a jail nurse.

56-year-old Neville passed away two days after he was restrained by a group of guards in the prone position. The controversial decision was used during the in-custody death of George Floyd. Neville told officers that they couldn’t breathe. The Forsyth County sheriff has since banned the prone restraint.

“While the family hoped this could have been settled without litigation, we want to thank the County for their part in trying to do what justice requires,” attorney for Neville’s son, Richard Keshian, said in a statement.

Neville passed away from a brain injury caused by “positional and compressional asphyxiation that led to a heart attack and brain injury,” the medical examiner’s report stated. Video footage shows Neville was on his stomach with his arms behind his back and his legs up to his wrist.

The guards only flipped the man over after realizing that he was unconscious. Neville was on his stomach for a total of 19 minutes before the nurse, Michelle Heughins, attempted to resuscitate him.

Neville’s family sued the detention officers, the nurse, Forsyth County and Wellpath LLC, the jail’s medical service provider, for damages in September of last year. The wrongful death lawsuit claims the defendants caused his death by hogtying him and ignoring his pleads for help.

“Not only was the use of a prone restraint on an unarmed, defenseless detainee who was experiencing a medical emergency an entirely unreasonable use of force, but the detention officers and nurse who purported to assist Mr. Neville altogether failed to recognize the seriousness of his condition,” the complaint said.

Neville reportedly fallen off his bunk in a seizure-like state while being held for a pending assault charge. The nurse found it difficult to take his blood pressure, therefore she called the guards for help. Five guards restrained Neville in another room, where they had to cut off his handcuffs.

“I can’t breathe!” Neville said a dozen times while the guards restrained him on the ground.

“You’re breathing because you’re talking, you’re yelling, you’re moving,” a guard responded.